The criticism of Sir Dave Richards before the parliamentary inquiry into football governance on Tuesday is expected to be only round one in a series of challenges to his position as the Premier League chairman over the coming weeks and months.

In principle the 67-year-old Richards does not have to retire for another 32 months, when he reaches his 70th birthday. However he is the subject of litigation from one of the League's member clubs, Fulham, over allegations he helped Tottenham Hotspur beat them to the transfer of Peter Crouch in the summer of 2009.

This, along with the expected criticism of his conduct from other speakers to the parliamentary inquiry and in a separate report from the sports minister, is expected by many to hasten his departure.

Indeed there is increasing talk within the game that the League's chief executive, Richard Scudamore, is positioning himself to succeed Richards.

Scudamore has raised his profile in the media and in football-political engagements overseas, and at a time when Richards has been cutting back on such activities. However, external relations will become Nic Coward's area of interest after he arrives in April from the British Horseracing Authority, as the League's first general secretary.

A League insider said: "It's total nonsense – the chairman's role holds no interest to Richard whatsoever."

Even so, Richards is on shaky ground. His best hope of survival is Scudamore – who has seldom been seen to be pushed around by external parties – reacting indignantly and protecting his chairman in the face of government criticism. But as the pressure mounts, there can be no guarantee of that.

Nil points for FA

David Bernstein, below, will embark on a new campaign of overseas engagement for the Football Association on Friday with a visit to the Uefa president, Michel Platini, in Nyon. And, boy, does he have his work cut out. Bernstein's full-time predecessor as the FA's chairman, Lord Triesman, had a strong relationship with Platini, but English reputations were damaged after outspoken criticism of international institutions from the former acting chairman, Roger Burden, following England 2018's failure.

Digger can reveal that England are so deep in the mire that the FA's bid to host the 2013 European Under-21 Championship returned zero votes a fortnight ago. The FA could not count even on the vote of Geoff Thompson, its Uefa executive-committee member, since – in contrast to bidding for Fifa tournaments – Uefa does not allow bidding nations' representatives to vote. England 2018's pitch for World Cup hosting rights did at least return two votes: Thompson and one other.

Boost for fan groups

While declaring itself "neutral about ownership models" to the ongoing parliamentary inquiry into football, the Premier League has provided a strong indication that it would be prepared to provide practical assistance to supporter-ownership schemes.

The League's chief spokesman, Dan Johnson, was a speaker at an Arsenal Supporters' Trust (AST) meeting this week, at which the club's ground-breaking Fanshare initiative was discussed. He heard that red tape had caused problems which the volunteer-led Trust found expensive and time-consuming to overcome. The AST wants changes to legislation that will help access to clubs for supporter-ownership schemes across football, an initiative the League appears open to funding.

Tesco's sporting chance

There was something ever so slightly smug about Tesco Mobile's advertising campaign last year through which it publicly eschewed sport sponsorships. Tesco will not sponsor football clubs, golf tournaments or Formula One teams because, so the message went, that would be a waste of money. "Couldn't you just give us Clubcard points instead," asked the actor in the ad. Yet is it possible that Tesco will make an exception?

Digger was intrigued to learn that after Thorney Motorsport distributed a favourable review of Tesco's own-brand petrol – having run a series of tests on the fuel against its bigger competitors – the team have now become Tesco Momentum 99 Racing. "Tesco Momentum 99 is a separate part of the business within the Tesco group from Tesco Mobile," said a spokesman, who also pointed to the company's sponsorship of the FA. Every little helps.